made in canada:

Where to begin with this one? Hmmm....This is a record that changed my life, let's put it that way. During my "formative" years (haha...will that phase ever pass?), growing up in Waterloo, Iowa, I didn't have much chance to be exposed to scads of new bands or even much music at all. Somehow, I found my way to the college radio show hosted late nights on one of the local stations. Those of you who remember the "glory days" of college radio know exactly what I'm talking about. It seems like every night I was getting turned on to more bands that really excited me and got me heavily interested in music...not just alternative stuff...but music of all genres.

One of the bands whom the DJ played quite regularly was Canada's almighty NOMEANSNO. Right from the start, i dug their name...but hearing their songs on my tiny little bedroom radio really inspired me. When I first heard the title track from this 1988 album "Small Parts Isolated And Destroyed", I thought it was the most insane thing I had ever heard at the time! From ultra-tight precision drumming, to strangely poppy chord workouts...then veering into creepy/humorous chanting, and back again to some funk-fueled punk sludge nerd rock. Another track from this disc that I loved as a kid was the awesome dark plod of "Victory." Wow..intense! Needless to say, this band was waaaay ahead of their time; and their paranoid observations show an intelligence that was rarely voiced on the same level within rock music back then in those "glory days."

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